Mark McGwire: “I used steroids”

ST. LOUIS — Mark McGwire acknowledged it was “time for me to talk about the past” and admit he used steroids during his playing career in a statement from the former slugger released today by the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I used steroids during my playing career and I apologize,” McGwire said in the statement released by the Cardinals to media outlets around the country. “I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the nineties, including during the 1998 season. I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era

McGwire also conducted a telephone interview with Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch after the statement was released.

“I’ve been telling my family and friends and coaches,” McGwire said. “This is the first time they’ve ever heard me talk about it. I hid it from everybody.

“There have been built up emotions I’ve had inside me a good five years now … I want to come clean.”

For the transcript of McGwire’s interview with Strauss, click here.

McGwire also will be interviewed live by Bob Costas in a special show that begins at 6 tonight (St. Louis time) on MLB Network.

In 1998, while with the Cardinals, McGwire broke the single-season home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire hit 70 that season, a record that stood until Barry Bonds broke it in 2002.

The reason McGwire acknowledge the use in a statement today, he said in the release, was because of imminent return to the game as the Cardinals hitting coach. Manager Tony La Russa announced in November that McGwire would be joining the coaching staff. Promises by the organization then to make McGwire available “sooner rather than later” did not manifest as attempts to put McGwire before the media were unsuccessful, due to scheduling or other reasons. In the release, he says his return to baseball is a reason for him to “come clean” on subjects he couldn’t five years ago in front of Congress

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